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Individual
Illegal Downloaders Next on Entertainment Industry Hit List |
Posted:
09.03.03
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The entertainment industry, led by the Recording Industry Association
of America (RIAA), plans to clamp down on file sharing and downloading
this September with legal action against individual users.
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 Because
the industry can't touch the file sharing services themselves -
though that is currently in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals --
the music industry has targeted individuals and the communications
companies that provide them with Internet access. Starting this
month, the RIAA plans to start filing hundreds of lawsuits against
individual listeners. People caught with copyrighted songs on their
computer could be fined up to $150,000 per song.
Every computer that signs onto the Internet is assigned an identity,
a set of numbers known as an IP (Internet Protocol) address. Internet
service providers, like Verizon Internet Services, keep logs of
what files travel to and from the IP addresses on their networks.
Using "digital fingerprints" - bit patterns unique to
each file - the RIAA can log onto a network and match the files
at any of the IP addresses with their library of protected material.
This way, the RIAA can tell where those files came from - whether
it was a legally purchased CD or downloaded off the Internet.
The RIAA already says it traced nearly 1,000 songs to a Brooklyn
woman's IP address, identified in court papers simply as "nycfashiongirl,"
and is trying to force Verizon to identify her.
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Privacy vs.
property |
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Internet advocates argue
that allowing the entertainment industry to use communications companies
and other technology to identify users is an invasion of privacy.
"In combating Internet piracy, we are destroying the opportunity
of the Internet to serve as a tool for extraordinary  creativity
and innovation," Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Stanford
University and an expert on Internet law, said.
But the entertainment industry, which includes movie, music and
television companies, says it isn't a question of privacy, but
of property.
"Why should you pay for a CD at a record store when you
can get it for free simply by slipping it into your pocket and
heading out the door?" the RIAA said in a press release,
arguing that illegal downloading means millions of dollars in
lost revenues. "Unauthorized downloading is just as illegal
as shoplifting, and it is every bit as wrong."
Peter Chernin, chief operating officer of the media giant News
Corporation, which includes Twentieth Century Fox Studios and
Fox Television, says 50 percent of the motion picture industry's
revenue comes from DVD and video sales.
"If all these products are pirated and stolen on the Internet
… if 50 percent of the income for this business goes away,
the business is over as we know it," he said.
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School of
hard knocks |
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Because so much of the file
sharing that goes on happens on university campuses, when students
often get their first taste of high speed broad band Internet connections,
school administrators are under pressure to do something about the
file sharing going on through their networks.
UC Berkeley is including an orientation session for incoming
students that not only teaches how to connect to and use the  Internet,
but also warns about the dangers of downloading copywritten material.
Students' access can also be cut off if they transfer more than
five gigabytes worth of files per week.
Other universities are cracking down by using software that blocks
song-swapping on their network. And some are looking into making
a download fee part of room and board, so that students can buy
the music legally.
"If music is that important to our students, some of the
things we might do is simply provide the music to them,"
said Graham Spanier, president of Penn State University.
--
Chris Nammour, Online NewsHour
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American schools and financial aid should be only for legal citizens of the United States. There should be no exceptions to this.
